So that's why, though I can't construct, and you feel all astray,
You've asked me to write you a play, HENRY, you've asked me to write you a play.
So take and bill me early, bill me early HENRY, dear;
I'm going to make the biggest hit of all the coming year;
Of all the coming year, HENRY:—and if it shouldn't pay:—
Still I shall have written your play, HENRY, I shall have written your play!
From Punch, December 4th, 1880.
These verses had reference to the announcement that the Poet Laureate was writing a tragedy to be produced at the Lyceum Theatre.—The Cup was indeed a greater success than most of Mr. Tennyson's previous dramatic productions, but it owed its popularity to splendid acting, and the magnificent mise-en-scene, far more than to its merits as a play, beautiful as it was as a poem.—It was produced on the 19th February, 1881.
In The Referee for December 2, 1882, the following parodies were published. It will be noticed that the first part imitates Cowper's John Gilpin, the second part Tennyson's May Queen, and the third part Campbell's Hohenlinden.